There are many reasons to start a butterfly garden in 
your backyard or on your window sill. 



The four main goals of a butterfly garden are:

Attracting butterflies into your garden is not difficult.
Butterflies are equipped with a finely tuned and highly
sensitive sense of smell. If you plant the right flowers
they will come and make your garden their home.

Butterflies can identify their favorite plants from miles away and travel for hours to taste the nectar of the flowers. They will lay eggs and remain nearby as long as you tend to your garden, keeping it healthy and blooming. In fact, you will be surprised to learn that the butterflies will probably arrive within only a few hours of the season's first flowers! It isn't difficult to make your backyard home to dozens at a time, giving you hours of enjoyment and helping the environment at the same time.

Even a planter attached to the window sill can bring you several butterflies at a time. They may live nearby in a park or on a neighborhood tree and use your flower box as their primary source of food, dropping by for a snack several times a day. With the right selection of flowers, you may even be surprised to find a few caterpillars as well!

Each different butterfly species has its own
favorite flower, so it is even possible to plan
your garden to attract your favorite varieties.

The selection of the right plants is the key to the success of your butterfly garden. Primarily, flowering nectar bushes and clumps of impatiens and the like are favorite haunts for these colorful creatures. The butterflies suck out the nectar as food, traveling from flower to flower, carrying pollen with them. This close relationship is one of nature's finest natural cycles. With careful plant selection, you can be assured of attracting butterflies for much of the year.

Not only are butterflies attracted to specific flowers, but they also seem to favor specific colors, another factor which should be considered as you select your plants. For instance, yellow Sulphur butterflies prefer yellow cassia, which affords them excellent camouflage among the flowers. This relationship is two-fold, in that the yellow cassia is also the Sulphur caterpillars' favored food.

The growth cycle of the butterfly, from egg,
to caterpillar, to chrysalis, and finally, to the
emergence of a full-fledged butterfly takes
only a few short weeks.

You should also consider the needs of the caterpillars as you sketch out your plan. Adult butterflies that frequent your garden will make it their lifelong home if they have a ready place to lay their eggs. Caterpillars are fussy eaters, so you will have to include the specific types of leafy green vines, shrubs, and trees that will like. Many species depend on a single plant type for their caterpillar food source. As a result, an adult butterfly will spend hours carefully selecting a specific leaf on the plant that will be best for the newborn caterpillars. Include the right caterpillar plant in your garden and you have the perfect invitation for long term residency. It's as easy as that!